


The soulmate effect

by MadImpossibleJ



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, still living au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:06:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2148372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadImpossibleJ/pseuds/MadImpossibleJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kieren Walker had never been much of a believer, but there were two things there was no way in all of the universe he could ever believe in: soulmates and the romantic idea that interesting things could ever happen on a train ride. When those two beliefs – or lack of thereof – happened to be deconstructed on the very same day, he promised himself he would never fully doubt anything ever again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The soulmate effect

Kieren Walker had never been much of a believer, but there were two things there was no way in all of the universe he could ever believe in: soulmates and the romantic idea that interesting things could ever happen on a train ride. When those two beliefs – or lack of thereof – happened to be deconstructed on the very same day, he promised himself he would never fully doubt anything ever again.

He got on the train and looked for an empty wagon. He was on his way back to his house and thankfully there weren’t too many passengers. He never understood what was the deal with train rides anyway, but sometimes he enjoyed just sitting there and watch the landscape pass through him for a few hours and then come back home in the end of the day. It was an unusual habit – or at least he thought so –, but it made him feel okay so it’s not like he had any reason to stop going on his day trips.  

After a few minute or two, he found a comfortable spot and sat there waiting for the train to leave. Through the window he could see the small number of people walking around the station with their bags, some of them looking worried, some of them looking happy, and he passed some time wondering what was going on their lives and their heads. It would sure be a more distracting pastime if there were more than 10 people or so there, so it didn’t take more than 5 minutes for him to feel bored.

He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and took a deep breath. For a second he thought about taking a nap or something before he realized there was a piece of paper inside one of the pockets. He wasn’t surprised to notice the paper was all crumpled; someone probably gave it to him somewhere and he stashed it there for God knows how long.

It was an advertising pamphlet and he almost laughed out loud when he read the words written on it.

_“Find your soulmate now! Call 956-745-999 and we will find the right match for you!”_

He didn’t know where it came from, but the “Soulmate Effect” was a thing nowadays. It all started when a girl claimed on the internet that she found the love of her life after seeing a kind of compatibility scale above this other girl’s head that went on something about 75%. After that, many people started to share their own experiences with the effect that was soon enough named as the “Soulmate Effect”.

From what it was known, it didn’t happen with many people, and not everyone had very successful with experiences. Sometimes the compatibility scale they saw was very low, and in many situations it wasn’t high enough to be considered love. It was very rare, actually, when someone actually found someone out of these experiences. Besides this, everyone was trying to explain _why_ that happened at all and, even more, everyone was trying to find how they could get it to help with themselves.

Kieren himself didn’t believe the Effect was a thing that could happen at all. He wasn’t the only one, though; many scientists shared the same belief. They used to explain the Effect could be a psychological response of a person’s desire to find someone to share their lives with and nothing more. A group of scientists and psychiatrists was even considering starting to treat these people as if they had an illness – something alike to schizophrenia, they said – but nothing had been done yet.

He was lost in his thoughts about this subject when the sound of conversation next to him snapped him out.

“Here looks perfect” a girl said. She sounded delighted, and it wouldn’t take long for Kieren to realize she used to sound like that 90% of the time. Kieren felt a little bit annoyed, since he’d looked so hard for an empty wagon but didn’t say anything. Instead, he just glanced curiously at the girl. She was wearing a beautiful dress and had a big red flower on her hair; she looked perfect to be drawn, and Kieren would certainly have paid more attention to her if he hadn’t seen the guy accompanying her.

He was certainly gorgeous – even with the weird, way too big, sweater on –, that much Kieren noticed right away, but what caught his attention was an almost full glowing blue bar hovering above his head; above it, he could see a ‘99%’ also glowing blue.

Kieren had to blink his eyes once or twice to make sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. He told himself that maybe he was just delirious and thinking too much about that stuff was doing him absolutely no good.

“Are you okay, dum dum?” the girl’s voice brought him back to reality. He felt his face burn red because he must’ve looked like a creep staring at the other guy like a weirdo. He looked down and whispered a “yeah, I’m fine”. He knew he didn’t sound convincing but it looked enough for the girl.

“Amy Dyer” she introduced herself and sat at the seat in front of his. The other guy sat by her side, looking uncomfortable. He occasionally glanced at Kieren in a contained awe, which also made him feel a little weird. “And this one right here is Simon. What about you, moregeous?”

Kieren told her his name and looked away from both of them. She started to talk about multiple subjects, but Kieren found it impossible to pay attention to a single one of them. Instead, he couldn’t stop thinking about that bar and that 99% hovering above Simon’s head and he wondered if that soulmate thing could even exist. More than that, he wondered why it would happen to _him_. He decided not to ask too many questions and, especially, not to create too much hope. Maybe that guy was going to a complete opposite direction and they would never see each other again, maybe he was a total asshole, maybe he was a creep, and maybe Kieren was just going crazy. It didn’t matter which one of these suppositions were right; the only thing Kieren knew was that there was no way this could end well and he could have good things.

That’s how the universe always worked for him, anyway. Whenever he hoped for good things, they were destroyed and he was miserable again; so he decided not to hope anymore. It was easier and it spared him the suffering.

He looked out the window and appreciated the landscape on the way back home and swept those thoughts away from his head.

***

Kieren thought that destiny was a total fucker.

Not only Amy and Simon moved to Roarton, but it turned out that all of Kieren’s suppositions were wrong. Simon wasn’t an asshole, he wasn’t a creep, and Kieren was definitely not going crazy.

In the first few weeks, he managed to keep his distance from the duo; he still found that staying around Simon was totally awkward given their first encounter, but despite his efforts, Amy just couldn’t stay away from him. Soon, they became very good friends and Kieren hung out at her bungalow a lot. That meant his plan to stay away from Simon failed worse than he could’ve ever imagined.

He thought that after a while, the compatibility bar would just disappear, but it’s been three months now and it was glowing as blue as the first time they met. It was annoying, really, and it reminded him that he didn’t dislike Simon nearly as much as he wanted to. In fact, he actually _liked_ Simon.

He was making his way to the bungalow and trying very hard not to think about it. When he got there, he took his keys – Amy had given him a set of them a few weeks before – and went in looking for her. She was nowhere to be seen, apparently, and he was about to leave when he noticed Simon sitting clumsily on the couch with a poetry book in his hands. Kieren looked at him and tried to ignore the damn blue bar, but today it seemed that it was glowing more than the usual.

Simon sat as soon as he saw Kieren there and smiled lightly at him. Kieren stood by the threshold, not really knowing what to do. The two of them were friends now, but the awkwardness between them never left, especially on occasions like this when they were alone. None of them really knew what to say so there was that weird silence in the air.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” Kieren was the first to break the silence and he regretted it as soon as he did it. He felt stupid just by asking this question – not to say embarrassed as fuck. Simon raised an eyebrow at him and looked like he was struggling not to laugh. Simon stood up and walked up to Kieren; he stopped only a few inches from him and crossed his arms.

“Maybe it could be a thing” Simon admitted. For some reason, Kieren thought his answer wasn’t convincing. He knew somehow there was more to it than it showed.

“Do you believe it?” Simon asked looking genuinely curious. Kieren looked at the blue bar still hovering above Simon’s head and the glowing ‘99%’ and thought about what he’d answer. He didn’t want to sound like a romantic childish hopeful kid – because that was what Kieren used to think about this whole soulmate thing – but at the same time he had to admit he didn’t know what he believed anymore. He sure as hell didn’t totally believe that the effect _worked_ but he wasn’t nearly as skeptical as he was before.

“Yes, I guess” he felt stupid admitting it, but he couldn’t lie anymore. Not when that irritating glowing bar was there all the time. Simon smiled at him in response and for a few seconds he looked at a fixed point above Kieren’s head.

_No, it can’t be_ , Kieren thought. From what he knew, the Effect wasn’t a two-way street. Only one of the people could see the compatibility bar while the other one would be totally in the dark about it, so it was impossible that Simon could see it as well. Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe Simon looking at that spot was a completely random thing.

But he couldn’t just let that slide. He had to ask.

“You can see it too?”

Simon looked at him in awe. Kieren really hoped that that look meant a yes or otherwise he would look even more stupid for asking that.

“I didn’t know it could happen with both people” Simon stated.

“Does that mean…?” Kieren started, still trying to process what was happening.

“Yes, we’re compatible, I guess” Simon smiled at him in silent admiration. None of them could believe a thing like that was happening. It was too much of a coincidence to happen. Kieren felt like his heart would jump out of his chest at any minute.

Simon held his face with both hands and looked into his eyes. Kieren was so lost in that look that he almost didn’t realize while the distance between them decreased; he only knew that at one point he felt his entire body was electrified and he realized they were kissing.

Kieren had spent so much time thinking that that soulmate thing was the biggest bullshit in the world and now that thought sounded like a joke. Now, feeling Simon’s hair under his fingertips, feeling their lips touching like they had been wishing this for their whole lifetimes, he didn’t think he could be more wrong. It still sounded like too much of a miracle for him, the kind of miracle he was not worthy of, or was too far away from him, but now he could not care less.

He didn’t like to create too many hopes about things, but now he couldn’t help but wonder that maybe, for once, things could be good.

Maybe train rides could be interesting.

Maybe soulmates existed.

Maybe things could be just _good_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for all of you who read it! Leave kudos/comments if you enjoyed! :))  
> ~~  
> This fanfic was written for the #saveintheflesh challenge organized by intheflesh-art on tumblr :)


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